Thursday, June 30, 2016

The grocerant niche continues to
expand garnering new retailers aiming to create a platform for sustainable
success.While Amazon can sell you books
Online to read on your Kindle, they can deliver a restaurant meal to your door,
and they can deliver groceries to your kitchen.Amazon they can’t serve you a coffee and desert or sandwich while you
read a book with friends.

Barnes & Noble is back and focused on the experience of reading and
everything readers of books enjoy while reading.That includes sipping on a hot cup of tea or
coffee and enjoying a bite to eat. Barnes & Noble is scheduled to open four
full-service cafés in its stores over the next year.

Barnes
& Noble’s new cafés will serve an expanded menu in a contemporary setting
(see renderings above and below this post).Grocerant niche focus had worked wonders for IKEA and they sell
furniture Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® expects that these new café’s
will work for Barns & Noble.

The
first of four expanded cafés offering table service, beer, and winewill open all across the US including at the
Vernon Hills Shopping Center in Eastchester, N.Y.,Edina Galleria in Edina, Minn.; One Loudon
mixed-use community in Loudon, Va.; and the Palladio at Broadstone Mall in
Folsom, Calif.

Jamie
Carey President of Barnes & Noble Restaurant Group stated “Our new cafés
will feature a contemporary aesthetic, an expanded food and beverage offering —
including wine and beer — and a major commitment to hospitality, featuring
tableside service,”

Carey
continued “The new food and beverage
offerings along with a focus on hospitality will further reinforce Barnes &
Noble as a destination and a place where people come to spend time and unwind,”
Carey said. “Where possible, we will also look for opportunities to introduce
some of these new offerings within our existing cafés.”

Legacy
retailers large and small are migrating to and adopting grocerant niche
ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food positioning.Is your brand evolving? Have you considered
selling grocerant niche Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food items to your employees
to take home for dinner?

Are you
trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?Interested
in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your
retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient
meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Did you ever hear the old
adage birds of a feather flock together?Kimbal Musk,
the brother of Tesla founder Elon Musk, and, founder of The Kitchen
farm-to-table restaurant group and a director of Chipotle, said he’s cracked
the code for a quick-service restaurant concept that will feature healthful
soups, sandwiches and salads for under $5 each.

Well
everyone is constantly talking about how smart Elon Musk is but we know that
Kimbal is just as smart.Kimbal like
Hudson Riehle, SVP of the National Restaurant Association’s research and
knowledge group understands that For full-service operations, the main drag on
sales is something too large for them to right on their own. The issue is an
erosion of the spending power of high-income families, whose spending
disproportionately fuels that segment.

Kimbal
is doing something about it.The
Kitchenette will be the third healthy concept pioneered by Musk and business
partner Hugo Matheson. In addition to locations of The Kitchen, the pair
operates a sister concept called Next Door.Musk will keep costs low in The Kitchenette by working closely with
local farmers. Musk says that using the same meat and produce distributors for
all three concepts will help slash prices for in-season items.

The
Kitchenette is part of Musk’s restaurant philosophy “Community Through Food”
and his efforts to establish what he calls a “real food culture.” Musk
continued “In the past five years, we’ve moved toward eating in our cars, our
cubicles, and in front of our TVs. It’s very isolating “The reality is that we
connect through food, and we have the opportunity to do it three times a day.”

Musk hopes to launch more Kitchenette
locations within Memphis and eventually take the concept nationwide. The
grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared better
for you combined with attractive price points (under $5) will be successful
according to our own Grocerant Guru®.

1.Purpose.Do you have contemporized customer fresh
food relevance? Why you are there? The most successful brands are
inclusive, include values greater than themselves. A lifestyle, a philosophy,
an emotion a point in time today that means “better for you is better for all”.

2.A story. Most major brands have a story.
Examples: if you like Ford vehicles, you might be familiar with the story of
Henry Ford or if you love your Nikes, you probably know how the Nike swoosh
logo was created. What is the story behind you grocerant niche fresh food?

3.Consumer interaction. When you are first entering the
grocerant niche , don't fool yourself into believing that your marketing
efforts are 'brand building'
efforts.
They're not because to build a real brand, you have to have an extensive track
record with consumers. Consumer will build the brand and the story for you when
you enter the consumer ‘awareness, acceptance, and adoption phase.

4.Trust. When you've consistently delivered for your customers long
enough, you'll gain the type of trust that many brands have.Would you buy a Toyoda today? Maybe so, but
how long do they have to rebuild that trust?

5.Consistency. When a consumer chooses a product or service
because of brand association, he or she is buying an expectation. Perhaps it's
the expectation that the branded product is of higher quality or that the
service will be provided in a more efficient manner. The expectation must be
met time after time. Our Grocerant ScoreCards can help you get on track.

6.Differentiation. Expectation is often borne of differentiation.
Many brands offer products and services that are commodities but they're
successful in developing some differentiation for their products and services
that consumers are sold on. Differentiation does not mean different it means
familiar but with a grocerant niche fresh food twist.

7.Imitators. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and
you're probably not a 'brand' until you have competitors trying to copy you. Do what you do best
and lead your fresh food grocerant space, don’t follow.

8.Market leadership.Top brands are usually looked at as leaders in the
markets they compete in. Own the space, and understand why you do.

9.Grow. The best brands are flexible and capable of reshaping and
reinventing themselves and their messages over time. Consumers are not
static!Your brand must be dynamic and
grow, change and adapt over time. Know where the grocerant space is moving and
move with it.

10.A strong marketing presence. The information
super highway is evolving; your message must follow the traffic.Don’t get stuck on the road less traveled.

Are you
trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?Interested
in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your
retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient
meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Monday, June 27, 2016

You
may not have heard of Centre St. Kitchen but you may very well know the company
that owns it.That company is Global
Partners and its President and CEO Eric Slifka.Global Partners is a midstream logistics and marketing company that
owns, controls, or has access to one of the largest terminal networks of
petroleum products and renewable fuels in the Northeast. With approximately
1,500 locations, primarily in the Northeast, Global Partners also is one of the
largest independent owners, suppliers and operators of gasoline stations and
convenience stores in the nation.

Like
the team at Foodservice Solutions® Global Partners team has taken it’s time
looked around and studied the success clues left by our Grocerant Guru® and
others then packed the best of them into Center St. Kitchen.

Slifka
stated that "We have an exciting new concept and store design that
significantly raises the bar for our company. As well, our store associates are
excited to match our design with outstanding customer service." The first
Centre St. Kitchen debuted 2015. This new location builds on the success of the
first with multiple additions:

Fresh,
made-to-order sandwiches

Customizable
pizza by the slice

Touchscreen
kiosk ordering

Expanded
seating and stand-up counter

Free
WiFi and charging stations

Slifka
continued "This Centre St. Kitchen is a fantastic evolution of our
concept, spot-on with several consumer and industry trends such as
customization, kiosk ordering and fresh ingredients," … "Our mission
is to bring unsurpassed quality and service for consumers looking for fresh,
on-the-go food options.”